Read Back to the Good Fortune Diner for Free Online Page B

the way to the diner. “When?”
    “How about in an hour? I’ve got to pick up something down at the hardware store anyhow.”
    She couldn’t detect any ulterior motive, couldn’t sense a trap, but she was too discombobulated to examine his intentions. She answered, “Okay. Sure. An hour. The Grindery,” and before she realized what she was doing, she hit End, before Chris could respond.
    She gaped at the phone in her hand, appalled she’d hung up on him. Maybe she should call him back and tell him she’d been cut off. What if he’d said something more, something important, like, “Just kidding, I’d never ask you out for coffee”?
    Stop that. Chris had never been that cruel, and this wasn’t high school.
    “Hot date?” Daniel smirked.
    She threw him a contemptuous look, her fury resurfacing. “What did you tell him about me?”
    “Tell him? Nothing.”
    “He knew I’d been laid off. You told him that?”
    Daniel blinked slowly. “Oh. Yeah. I did. Sorry.”
    “I don’t need you blabbing my business to everyone, okay?”
    Her brother stepped back, hands raised. “I said I’m sorry. Jeez, what’s the big deal?”
    “What do you mean ‘what’s the big deal’? I was fired. You think I want the whole town to know it?”
    “You were laid off, not fired,” he said quietly.
    “I know that. But I’d rather not have the whole freaking town think I was a massive failure. You know that’s what Mom and Dad are going to tell everyone.” She hated it when her family talked about her to other people. They’d done it her whole life, making her a living example of good Chinese upbringing, tearing her down when she didn’t meet their standards, and always, always comparing her to Daniel.
    She slapped his phone onto the tabletop and pushed through the swinging door. The stink of fryer oil clung to her skin.
    Her mother looked up as Tiffany snatched her purse from under the counter. “The menus could use wiping down—”
    “I’ve got to go. I’m meeting someone.” Her biting tone startled her mother.
    “Who?” Rose asked, surprised.
    “A friend. From high school.”
    Her mother’s eyebrows knitted together skeptically.
    “I’ll walk Poh-poh home first,” Tiff said, preempting her mother’s query. Hearing her name, Sunny got to her feet and said a cursory goodbye. Her grandmother was perfectly capable of walking home alone, of course, but that wasn’t the point.
    As they plodded home, Tiff decided she’d shower and change before she met up with Chris. Hopefully, by that point, she’d have calmed down and regained her temper and self-confidence, and put awkward Tiffany Cheung back into the darkest recesses of her mental closet.

CHAPTER FOUR
    C HRIS DWARFED THE CAFÉ TABLE in the Grindery, the extralarge coffee he’d ordered cupped between his hands. His gaze jumped toward the door every time someone came in or a flash of movement caught his eye. He was inexplicably nervous about meeting Tiffany Cheung again.
    Part of it was that she’d always kind of intimidated him, which was stupid since she was barely five-two and 120 pounds soaking wet. She’d always been ultraserious, goal-oriented, her mind always on schoolwork and getting top marks. Nothing distracted her. Not even him.
    He remembered when he’d first approached her, asking for help with his English paper, and she’d refused, saying she didn’t have time to tutor him. He’d followed her through hallways between periods and practically begged until she’d reluctantly given in.
    She’d been mercilessly focused in her tutelage. She wouldn’t allow him to waste a minute of their time together: she had other things she could be doing, and he was only paying her five bucks an hour. It was the best money he’d ever spent. Thanks to Tiffany, he’d earned his scholarship to Berkeley.
    Maybe that was why he felt like a boy waiting to get a scolding from the principal. He was ashamed that he was begging for her assistance again. He